


Unconditional

by TheVoiceOfAllThings



Category: One Piece
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:41:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24300754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheVoiceOfAllThings/pseuds/TheVoiceOfAllThings
Summary: They're not, by any definition, good people.Luffy loves them anyway.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Roronoa Zoro, Monkey D. Luffy & Sabo, Monkey D. Luffy & Trafalgar D. Water Law
Comments: 4
Kudos: 119





	Unconditional

**Sabo**

Sabo drives the end of his pipe into the cornered pirate's throat and doesn't relent until the man takes one final, desperate gasp and then goes still. 

The rest of the ship is sleeping, save for the would-be slaves who were (up to ten minutes ago) locked in a wet, dirty cell in the hull of the ship. Sabo can sense them being led to the safety of the small Revolutionary Army ship keeping pace off the starboard side.

More men will be on watch. It doesn't matter though, he can make sure these scum don't give them any problems in the hours to follow. 

With a graceful leap up the rigging and an impish smile pulling at his lips, Sabo calls flame to the tip of a single finger. He points at the sails and shoots. Once. Twice. Thrice. 

The canvas must be coated in a protective oil to help slow any fraying because the fire absolutely swallows the sails in seconds.

Sabo laughs as he jumps down and lands in a crouch. He drops bits of flame like breadcrumbs as he makes his way starboard. Behind him the watchmen scream. The crows nest was occupied, then. 

A body thumps to the ground behind him but he doesn't bother looking back. 

A light step onto the railing of the ship and he's falling, landing, greeting familiar faces. 

"Jeez, was burning the whole ship really necessary, Sabo-kun?" Koala sighs, shaking her head. 

"These guys were paid to transport, but they're not the ones we're really after. If the slave traders start hiring Marine ships instead, these operations are going to get much harder!" 

Sabo laughs a little, hand rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry, sorry. I guess I got a little carried away."

"You don't look very sorry!" Koala huffs. 

Sabo smiles, knowing full well that Koala isn't really upset with how things turned out. Any link removed from the chain that is the slave trading industry is a step in the right direction. 

The ship carries them away from the burning vessel. The rescued civilians cry and laugh in the background. Their wounds are being tended. Food is offered, and then blankets. 

Sabo only has eyes for the fire. He watches men and women jump from the ship, swimming desperately after them. In their panicked minds this ship is their salvation, just waiting to pull them up to safety and a second chance. They're grasping at the last straws of their own existence, and still Sabo smiles. 

He sees his little brother then, clear in his mind. Luffy would never do something to take away another's freedom.

 _Never_. 

It comes to mind how not all men are created equal. Some are tarnished from their first breath. Rotten inside. Some of those people could have been suffocated in their cribs and the world would be been a better place for it. 

Others were just born weak. Weak people absorb the morals of the people they follow. They suck ideals and prejudices up like a dry sponge. 

These people followed the wrong captain. Under someone like Dragon- someone like _Luffy_ \- some of them may have been salvageable.

But not now. Now they're just hours from becoming bloated bodies or ash scattered in the sea. 

Sink or burn? 

Or burn then sink? 

He'd almost done both, once. 

Sabo is neither judge nor jury. He won't say these pirates deserve the choices before them. He's merely a force present in the world. No different than a tsunami or plague. 

_Move out of my way or I can't guarantee what will happen to you._

_Make sure your business does not become **my** business. _

"Koala," Sabo says, a thought crossing his mind suddenly. 

"Hmm?" She stands from where she was crouching, tending to an injured woman and joins him at the railing. 

"Remind me to call Luffy when we get back. Oil's a bad idea for a sail. I bet his shipwright could figure something else out." 

Koala follows his gaze to the burning ship, now a small orange orb in the distance. She shudders a little at the look in her friend's eyes but nods. 

"I'd like to talk to Robin-San, myself. I really miss having her around." Koala sighs. 

Sabo nods and offers her a grin that reaches his eyes. "She's where she's supposed to be, though. I'm glad that she has his back." 

Ten minutes later and the burning ship is out of sight. Still, the screams carry. 

* * *

**Law**

"Torao, stop!"

Law does. It surprises him that Luffy's voice was enough to give him pause, but it does. 

The boy who was, just a brief moment ago, seconds away from having his head severed from his body is frozen in absolute shock. His eyes are pooling as he tries to crab crawl away from the point of Law's sword only to find himself with his back against a wall. 

"Stop?" Law asks in a deceivingly calm voice. He's watching Luffy from the corner of his eye. 

The Straw Hat captain frowns, brow furrowed in confusion. Law can tell that Luffy knows there's something wrong and that this kid is the cause of it. Still, he says, 

"Yeah. He's just a kid. Don't kill him."

Law was just a kid once, too. And he hates that he sees a little of himself staring back up at him. The boy is thirteen. Maybe fourteen. He's dressed well. Clean. Well fed but slender. Easy to overlook. 

They'd just spent the better of the last four hours with this kid, laughing with him, listening to his fabricated story. Fighting enemies who were too few and too weak to match up with his claims of needing their help.

Law liked the kid well enough ten minutes ago. 

But that was before, and this is now. Now, Law could watch his head roll down the dirty road and sleep no more poorly tonight than any other night for it. 

Law holds up the weapon he'd frantically snatched from Luffy's hands just in time. _Just in time_ , because a second too late and Law would have witnessed a death few doctors had seen before. 

It was a dessert, offered with a smile. Not even questioned by Luffy's own cook. Nor his presumed vice captain. Nor his doctor. 

Luffy loves food. People love Luffy. Inevitably, this leads to people giving Luffy food. It was only a matter of time before someone tried to exploit it. 

"Wait, wait, wait!" Nami pleads, cautiously stepping between Law and the boy, who was now actively begging for his life. "What's going on? You can't seriously be thinking of murdering a child? What's so dangerous about a fruit tart, anyway?" 

"This," Law says, holding the tart out to her, "isn't an ordinary fruit." 

The navigator's eyes widen first in shock, followed closely by horror as she takes the fruit tart in her own hands and pulls up a small, swirl patterned pink fruit between two fingertips. 

"This is…" Nami gasps. 

"A devil fruit…" Sanji finishes, bewildered.

"It's an assassination attempt." Law corrects. 

Even Luffy seems to pale a little when Law spells it out for them. 

Nami pulls the tart closer to her chest and steps back, back, back until she's as far from Luffy with it as she can manage without leaving their little group. 

The others- Sanji, Zoro, and Chopper- gravitate toward their captain, putting their bodies between him and the would-be death fruit. With Luffy's history with food, Law can't blame them. He, too, wants to see that damn devil fruit sink to the bottom of the sea where there's no chance of the rubber idiot accidentally eating it. 

"Oi, Luffy. Let's head back to the ship, I'll make you a dessert twice as big and a hundred times more delicious than that shitty tart." Sanji promises, and places a hand on Luffy's shoulder to steer him away. 

Law doesn't miss the shake of the cook's hands, or the way he avoids looking at the teenager cowering feet away from him. 

Luffy blinks, face blank as he let's Sanji lead him back toward Sunny. He looks back at Law and their eyes meet. Law doesn't falter under the look. He doesn't bend the way that some of Straw Hat's allies would. Law can't read Luffy, not the way that Zoro does. But when Luffy looks at him like that he feels like an open book.

He doesn't know what Luffy sees in his eyes. Maybe it's the filthy, dark parts of him that Luffy's staring down. But, hesitantly, Luffy nods and turns away without a word. 

Nami and Chopper hurry after them, the latter hesitating only a moment when he notices that Zoro hasn't moved to follow. The swordsman gives a nod of his head. An order. Chopper obeys it and runs to catch up with the rest. 

"I can handle this myself, Zoro-ya." Law says coolly. 

"He won't like this." Is the response. 

It's true. Law knows it. 

Cora-san wouldn't like it, either. On the other side of the same coin Doflamingo would _love_ to see him now. He'd love to see the little monster he'd molded in his own image. 

But as the Straw Hat's swordsman moves to cut off the boy's sudden attempt at escape, Law realizes that he's not the only one Luffy is willing to look the other way for.

Law's not the only one who's willing to get his hands dirty. 

Luffy won't like what they're about to do. He won't like the way they're going to get their information on who, exactly, sent a _kid_ to kill the future Pirate King. He won't like it if, by the time they return to the Sunny, there is one less teenager inhabiting it. 

But he won't stand in their way, either. And that kind of acceptance of who he is, of _what_ he is, makes Law want to cut down anyone who'd threaten it. 

Later, when Law and Zoro finally return their clothes are bloodied with someone else's blood. Many someones. 

Luffy doesn't ask if they've killed the boy. Maybe his observation haki allows him to sense that the child has been spared, or maybe he knows the answer won't change anything. They did decide to let the kid leave with his life, after they learned what they needed. The men who hired him weren't so lucky. 

Instead, Luffy waits until they've cleaned up and drags them into the galley where food, drink, music and good company await them. 

And when Luffy next holds Law's gaze it's with a smile that could rival the sun. It's a smile that makes Law want to _believe_ he can be a better man. 

Law is the product of a society who cared too little and a man who cared too much. He's known loss, pain, and love in unequal measures.

He's a man who can save lives but more often takes them. 

Luffy loves him anyway. 

**Author's Note:**

> Give me a Sabo who is soft with Luffy one minute and burning people alive the next. Batshit crazy Sabo is my fav Sabo. 
> 
> And you can't tell me Law is completely sane. He's the surgeon of fucking death. I like to think that he's soft for certain people (which now include the Shs) but will straight up murder anyone who pisses him off enough. 
> 
> I'll probably have a chapter for Zoro soon. And possibly Ace or Robin. Maybe even Luffy, because he's also a cinnamon roll with claws. We'll see what procrastinating on my other fics brings 😂


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